WC’s Epic Fails: The Earth Day Riot

WC discovered in his sophomore year of college that the Oregon Daily Emerald would pay good money for photos they published. WC had owned his Minolta SRT-101 camera for about three months and thought he was a hotshot photographer. So he signed up as a photographer for the student newspaper.

The first Earth Day event on April 22, 1970 was a big deal in Eugene. Local activists had recruited a pretty good crowd, and the Emerald asked WC to get some photos. Tensions were still very much present. The earlier police riot outside Willamette National Forest headquarters, yet another bomb in the burned-out husk of the ROTC building and the ongoing anger over the Vietnam War all contributed. The Eugene City Police were out in helmets and riot shields.

WC was photographing the speakers and didn’t see how it started. But there was pushing, shoving and screaming at the back of the crowd and then, almost inevitably, clouds of tear gas. It happened very quickly. In less than 30 seconds the crowd went from peaceful to violent. Long nightsticks were swinging. WC never moved. The police were working their way through the crowd, moving towards the speakers. WC was taking photos of two of Eugene’s finest, swinging clubs at a guy lying helpless on the ground, when the world exploded.

The next thing WC knew, and this is all a bit hazy, he was on his back on the street, coughing from tear gas. A cop was tugging on WC’s arm, trying to pull WC to his feet. A second one grabbed WC’s other arm, and WC was hauled to his feet. WC wasn’t able to stand without help. The cops handcuffed WC, dragged him to a box truck and threw him in the back.

Everyone in the box truck was injured to some extent. WC discovered that his nose was broken and streaming blood. Eventually, we were all hauled to Sacred Heart Hospital’s emergency room. WC’s nose was smashed completely over to the left side of his face and he had two big black eyes. Amazingly, the Minolta was still on its strap around WC’s neck. The lens was shattered. The camera body was intact but damaged. The emergency room doctor said a cop’s riot stick had likely hit the camera at full speed, and the camera had then hit WC’s face. WC never saw it coming.

The doctor fixed WC’s nose, told him to apply ice packs and went on to the next patient. WC staggered the couple of blocks from the hospital to the Emerald offices. Photographers did their own dark room work back then, so WC processed the photos and one of the shots of the cops beating the kid made the front page. To WC’s utter disappointment, there wasn’t a shot of a club arriving at speed with WC’s camera. The money for the use of WC’s photos paid about half of the medical bills. WC looked like a mugged raccoon for two weeks. The nose healed eventually.

WC was asked to testify at an inquiry commission later that spring. Eventually, in the fall of 1971, the City of Eugene bought WC a new – well, refurbished – Minolta SRT-101. No one ever apologized, or reimbursed WC for his medical bills or injuries, but the Eugene Police Department Chief of Police was fired and the cops were a less obtrusive presence around the campus the next two years.

The photos from the Earth Day Riot were the last photos WC took for the Emerald.